Month: September 2014

It’s week 17 already-and I’m not sure if this month has flown for anyone else but for my family-it’s zipped by quicker than I realized. With Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks away (and my son turns 2!) we are nearing the end of the farm share season 🙁 Until then though we’ll still be getting some amazing goodies in our boxes and this week Jenny informed me that everyone gets 11 items in their boxes-score!

This weeks recipes is one that I discovered last year when I had piled up all the squash from nearly every box and had no clue what to do with them. It’s a staple in our house during this time of the year and it’s AMAZING! What is better than baked squash? Why baked squash with maple syrup (a super food to boot). This recipe is from all recipes-enjoy!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-squash-and-maple-syrup/detail.aspx

3 1/2 poundsbutternut squash

1/4 cupbutter

1/2 cupdiced onion

1/4 teaspoonground nutmeg

1/2 cupchicken stock

1/3 cupreal maple syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Place squash halves, cut side up, on large baking sheet. bake until very tender, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Using large spoon, scoop out squash flesh and transfer to large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add chopped onion and ground nutmeg and saute until onion is tender and light brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl with squash. Add chicken broth and maple syrup.

Puree mixture in batches in processor until smooth. Season squash puree with salt and pepper. Return puree to same saucepan. Stir puree over medium heat until heated through. Transfer to bowl and serve.

Here is what you can look forward to with the delivery of this weeks farms share:

Hi from the farm! September is a big month for a lot of us: back to school, back from summer vacations (sigh), new classes, and the likes. Here on the farm it’s the month of reckoning, so to speak. It’s impossible to tell how the year has been until around this time, when some of the crops that have been growing all season, like squash and cabbage, are ready to harvest. Cool, crisp nights are actually a bonus to some crops like carrots and other root crops, which become sweeter after the frost. All the sugars from the plants move into the root as the leaves begin to wither. Sometime in October your bunched beets may have to turn into loose beets, but for now, we haven’t seen much frost.

It was an exciting week on the farm. A small army of amazing volunteers came from Intact Insurance in Ajax, where we have many awesome customers all under one roof. They tried their hand at everything from eggplant-picking, to carrot-bunching (messiest job!), to ground cherry picking and clamshelling, to even packing the boxes. We tackled things I wouldn’t have attempted alone- those things like the tomatillos that needed to be picked but I wondered when I would have the time. So a huge THANK YOU for the encouragement, help and great attitudes you all brought us this week! Sadly, I was too busy to take photographs. Terrible!

For your lunch boxes this week we have some lovely celery, peppers, carrots and peas, lettuce for some tasty wraps and salads, cantaloupe, and some very packable ground cherries for the whole shares. May I recommend if you have not already started, make your own hummus dip. It’s 100 percent better than store-bought, economical and so healthy. Just mix drained chickpeas, a couple tbsp. olive oil, a couple tbsp. lemon juice, garlic to taste, salt and pepper to taste and blend. Add a little water to allow it to blend. Try using roasted eggplant (whole shares) in the place of chickpeas for baba ghanouj.

This weeks recipe once again comes from Melissa’s blog-her recipes always look amazing and use all sorts of healthy goodies that we usually have in our boxes. I’m sharing her Stuffed Delicata Squash recipe 🙂
If you end up making it please share photos-I think I will save this one for thanksgiving for the family-always trying to figure out new ways to get healthy mixes into our large family get togethers. I know without a doubt mine will not be as pretty as Melissa’s but some of our farm share members must be good cooks-so post your pictures of whatever it is that you make if it comes out well so we can all try it out too 🙂
http://mywholefoodlife.com/2013/12/09/stuffed-delicata-squash/

Hello from the farm! Sorry that this post is coming a day late-days this week have gotten away from me and I thought it was Wednesday! I guess it’s not just the summer that has flown by-it’s the days and weeks too!

The last breath of summer is upon us and we are enjoying what the end of the season is blessing us with during the harvest. To think that Thanksgiving is in a few short weeks already-I know I have home made pumpkin pie on my list of things to bake in the next coming weeks and I’ll share my favourite recipe with you closer to the holiday. The boxes this week are colorful and quite the variety-I’m excited to cook this week.

Jenny was kind enough to share a lovely cupcake recipe for those lovely ground cherries that we got in our boxes too. I’m hoping to bake some and bring them along to a play date tomorrow but I might only have time to bake cookies-we shall see how the day goes. Here is a link to the recipe (I would copy and paste but she has such a lovely blog with step by step photos and a lovely bit on the ground cherries too-and they look yummy that I figured if your interested you can follow the link)http://veganyumyum.com/2008/09/ground-cherry-cupcake-pies/

Greetings from the farm. So you might have thought that I was so desperate to get the tomatoes to you before blight set in, but no, those green perfect little round fruit in those adorable leaf “pockets” are tomatillos, and yes they are supposed to be green. After some research I learned that they are ready to harvest when their little pouch breaks open. While they are most used in green sauces or salsas in Mexican food, I found this recipe idea that the average Joe-veggie-lover might feel comfortable tackling, just in time for the cooler evenings welcoming us into September: white bean chili chicken chili. The original recipe can be found here, but I adapted this for use with some fresh veggies. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/white-bean-chicken-chili/ I am excited to try this recipe for Sunday lunch when we have company. Chili is dependably delicious, right? Also, this is SO going in my slow-cooker not stovetop.

First here is what you can look forward in this weeks boxes:

Half Share
-saladette tomatoes
-romaine lettuce
-carrots
-tomatillos (labelled to save the confusion!)
-green beans (they just keep coming! If you’re sick of them, consider blanching and freezing. Then in November you can reminisce about your fresh Farm Share bins)
-sugar snap peas
-eggplant
-delicata squash (similar to sweet potato in texture. Small, beautiful and delicious when roasted, or cut into cubes and add to stews, etc.)
-cucumber
-Chinese cabbage or raddichio (whichever one you didn’t try last week)

1.Heat oil, and cook onion and garlic until soft.
2.Stir in broth, tomatillos, tomatoes, chilies, and spices. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
3.Add corn, chicken, and beans; simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.